The National Motorsports Press Association award-winning online home of Dave "The Godfather" Moody.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

COMMENTARY: No Need For Knee-Jerk Reactions

Out at least another week

Dale
Earnhardt, Jr. will sit-out his second consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race
this weekend at Kansas Speedway, due to the lingering effects of two
concussions in a six-week span. His absence has inspired considerable debate over
whether NASCAR should allow substitute drivers to earn points for injured or
ill competitors, allowing drivers like Earnhardt to miss races without falling
out of championship contention.

The
discussion is understandable. Earnhardt is, after all, NASCAR’s most popular
driver, and his exit from the 2012 title chase is disappointing to his large
and enthusiastic fan base. In this case, however, NASCAR would do well to turn
a deaf ear to its fan base.

In 2002, Sterling Marlin led the Winston Cup point standings for 25 consecutive weeks,
until an October crash left him with a fractured vertebra in his neck. The
46-year old Marlin was almost certainly headed for the series championship
that season; a title that he never challenged for again. Marlin’s plight was
heartbreaking, but NASCAR did not re-write their rulebook to allow a substitute
driver to take his place and clinch the title.

The sanctioning body was not swayed by emotion that day, and they should
not be swayed today.

More
recently, when a stuck throttle sent Jeff Gordon’s Chevrolet into the wall in this
year’s Chase opener at Chicagoland Speedway, his championship hopes went right
along with it. Like Marlin a decade before, Gordon was not allowed to “drop”
that 35th-place finish and pretend it didn’t happen.

There
is no shortage these days of kinder, gentler folk who refuse to keep score in
youth soccer games, instead preferring a “popsicles for all” policy at game’s
end and trophies only for participation. They think it should be easy to win
the Sprint Cup championship, so nobody has to lose and get their feelings hurt.

Count
me out.

In
professional sports – and in life -- bad days determine championships just as
surely as good days. The ability to perform at a consistently high level is part
of any successful postseason effort, and teams that wilt under the pressure of
the playoffs seldom sip champagne from the championship trophy.

Just
ask the Buffalo Bills. Or Kyle Busch.

When
Dallas Cowboys tight end Jackie Smith dropped a sure touchdown pass in the
fourth quarter of his team’s 35-31 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super
Bowl XIII, nobody handed the ball back to Roger Staubach and offered
him the opportunity to throw it again.

When Bill Buckner booted that slow
roller in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series – costing his Boston Red Sox the game
and (ultimately) the series – he was not given a “do-over.”

When Michigan’s Chris Webber
unwittingly called an illegal time-out in the waning moments of the 1993 NCAA
Men’s Basketball Finals, the referees whistled him for a game-deciding technical
foul, rather than forgiving the violation and letting the Wolverines try again.

Only
in golf are mulligans awarded, and even then, only in Saturday morning friendly
foursomes where nothing more important is up for grabs than a cold beer on the
19th hole.

If
NASCAR inexplicably decides to allow “substitute drivers” in the event of
illness or injury, it won’t be long before a championship-contending driver comes
up with a sudden case of the sniffles at Sonoma or Watkins Glen, allowing his
team to plug-in a road course expert in his place.

That’s
not what NASCAR racing has ever been about.

Winning
the Sprint Cup Series championship is not easy. It requires a near-impossible
mix of speed, consistency, durability, impeccable strategy… and sheer luck. Without
all of the above, it’s virtually impossible to prevail over the course of a
10-race Chase.

"Dumbing
down" those requirements to keep drivers in the hunt – even when they are
injured and unable to compete – devalues both the championship and the sport as a whole.

Not only do I agree, but I was quoted for an article a handful of years ago about the same concept of the "everybody gets a trophy" generation and how that thought process has turned the concept of competition on its head.

Godfather, what I really appreciate about your commentary, whether on the radio or your blog, is you don't pull punches, you don't sugar coat, and you don't worry about whose feathers you may ruffle - you tell it the way you see it - amen brother, amen!